Megan Phelps-Roper, shown in 2006, has left the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. The small church is known for its anti-gay demonstrations and picketing funerals.

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| USA Today

The Westboro Baptist Church - notorious for picketing famous funerals and public events to promote an anti-gay ideology - has lost two key followers.

Two granddaughters of Westboro founder Fred Phelps, 83, have publicly quit the church, denounced its campaigns to disrupt funerals for military officers, entertainers and shooting victims, and apologized for years of carrying signs proclaiming "God hates" homosexuals.

Megan Phelps-Roper, 27, formerly one of the most outspoken members of the tiny congregation and a leader of its funeral pickets, and her sister Grace, walked away from ...